Hạ Long Bay
 

A sole wonder of  the nature

is nearly 200km from the capital Hà Nôi, Ha Long Bay is constitued by 3000 small and big islands of all shapes.

 
   

 
     
     

 

    
     
     
     
     
In 1994, Ha Long Bay was listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO. Nearly half a century before, it was classified in Paris as one of the world's wonders in the book intituled " Wonders of the World" published in 1950. The French marshal Lyautey compared it with Venice rocks in the " Letters of Tonkin and Madagascar " (June 24, 1895).    

The French novelist Yvonne Schultz did not hesitate to praise the miraculous beauty of this bay:

All heights and ten thousand forms; imagination, imitation, pagodas, Hindu temples, menhirs, Chinese towers, pieces of chess-board or true immense mountain. And the extraordinary flows simulating the ruined keeps, the broken down bastions, a succession of palaces with the open belly and tribes of mutilated idols
in the book intituled The boatman of Ha Long Bay

Một kỳ quan thế giới

The most beautiful cave is Ðầu Gỗ which the French first visited in the nineteenth century. It is here that in 1288 the Vietnamese General , Hưng Ðạo Vương Trần Quốc Tuấn ordered his soldiers to hide ironwood used for making the stakes that destroyed the Mongolian ships of Kubilai Khan in the historic battle of Bạch Ðằng river.

Impressed by the splendor and beauty of this bay that he visited by junk in 1468, the great king Lê Thánh Tôn left some unforgettable verses in witness of his emotion:


Hải thượng vạn phong quần ngọc lập,
Tinh la kỳ bố thúy tranh vanh
Muôn ngọn núi  nổ  trên như  biển ngọc
La liệt như  những sao sa, những quần cờ, chênh vênh màu xanh biếc ...

High summits are drawn up as a crowd in the sea like many jewels
Bluish tops are dispersed like the falling stars and the pieces in the chessboard of waves.
Fish and salt, abundant like sand, offer a rapid gain to people.


 

Ðầu Gỗ 's cave

   
  The same article in format pdf